Task: Fighting the Freebie War

To create a hot consumer promo for Appy Fizz during summer. To come up with a relevant attractive freebie, and compete in the freebie war with large multi-national beverage brands with practically one-tenth of their budgets. And to create communication that really stands out in the cacophony of freebie announcements.

Background: A Cool Youth Icon and a Hot Summer

A few years back Appy Fizz walked out a of a refrigerator and into the hearts of millions of oung Indians. The communication we created for Appy Fizz personified the drink as a young and opinionated colle drink to hang out with

Market Scenario: Nothing is hotter than an Indian summer. Barring perhaps the sales of cold beverages during those three months. To get a bigger share of the pie, every brand comes up with exciting consumer promotions. The cola giants especially offer some big prizes on every purchase.

Process: Global Chilling

In FreeThinking™ sessions on the brand, we laid out a few parameters for the promo.

One, be true to the brand. We decided that we wouldn’t give away any random freebie with Appy Fizz. He was a youth icon with a tremendous following. Everything he did or said was seen and heard. The promo definitely had to have stature.

Two, be true to the consumer. The Appy Fizz consumer was forward thinking, intelligent and formed his own opinions. It was imperative that the promo cannot be mindless.

During one of the sessions, we realized that thanks to global warming, this particular summer was hotter than ever before. Another truth, tied in pretty well. Indian families are large, and most refrigerators in India come with one ice tray, and they run out of ice quickly. An ice tray as a freebie sounded just right.

Appy Fizz’s spirit of activism then took over. We created a mock social campaign against Global Warming to promote the free ice maker trays. We called it the “Make Ice. Not warm” movement. It was a 360 degree guerrilla campaign in true propaganda style asking people to get the free ice maker and make more ice to keep Global Warming away. We turned Appy Fizz into the Indian Al Gore and the ice makers – his weapon against Global Warming.

What followed was just mind blowing! And the promotion, of course, was a huge success. Consumers stopped looking at the ice tray as a freebie. It had become a collectible and a symbol of the fight against Global Warming. Appy Fizz conquered the freebie war and somewhere contributed at least a wee bit to the fight against Global Warming.